News & analysis of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, by Matthew Stiegler

New opinion — paying employees for meals doesn’t excuse failure to pay them for overtime

Employees of DuPont sued the company under the FLSA and state law for not paying them overtime for their off-the-clock time donning and doffing their uniforms and consulting with other employees. DuPont argued that it didn’t have to pay them this overtime because instead it paid them for their meal-break time, which it was not legally required to do. It argued that it could use the meal time for which it paid employees to offset the other time for which it didn’t. The district court agreed with DuPont, but today the Third Circuit reversed.

Joining Rendell were Vanaskie and Krause. Arguing counsel were Thomas Marrone for the employees, David Fryman of Ballard Spahr for Dupont, and Rachel Goldberg for the US Department of Labor as amicus curiae.